For a long time blip.tv had a chicken and the egg problem. They wanted to focus on acquiring great content for their network of independent web shows. But it was hard to convince top show to come on board, because they didn’t have a lot of traffic.
Well traffic is no longer a problem at blip.tv. Monthly video views have tripled over the past six months to 330 million. That means the network, which has 3 billion video views to date, expects to clock 1 billion more each quarter.
“Our focus now is discovery,” says co-founder Mike Hudack. With that in mind blip has redone their website, aiming to create a destination portal that will help users find new content, not just watch the show they stumble on through search or social.
The old blip.tv site had no notion of categories. Now an editorial team is curating verticals like comedy, sports and tech. “The thing we heard again and again from viewers was, ‘we want to be programmed to’,” says Hudack. When a user arrives at a channel now, a playlist featuring several hours is already cued up.
Big brand advertisers can now sponsor site takeovers and brand specific channels, with Reebok backing Health and Fitness and T-Mobile USA as the official launch sponsor for the new site. Blip is so focused on the production values for their new site, they even designed the Reebok ad in-house.
The company, which just moved into new offices, has 50 employees and is still hiring. Of the 50,000 or so shows in the blip catalog, only 1,800, or roughly 5% are being featured on the site. The aim is to drive traffic to these programs and provide an incentive for the producers who didn’t make the cut to step up their game. “We’re drawing a line in the sand and saying you need certain elements,” says Hudack.
The new blip.tv site is live here.
